Finding Lost
by lobelia07
Summary: Sirius gets himself and Remus into trouble ... again ... and Remus learns what can be found when you're lost. RLSB


Disclaimer- J.K. Rowling is brilliant … and while I would love to have written Harry Potter, sadly it belongs to her.

Author's note- And in a further attempt to avoid writing the stories I should be writing, I give you this one-shot born out of the boredom of summer. Please review, whether you liked it or not. Anything is appreciated and I can always use the criticism!

Finding Lost

Remus hated oranges. They were too round, too pulp-filled, and too _orange_. Every time he tried to peel one, the skin would come off in varied chunks, falling apart in a complicated array of that one, horrid color. If he bit into one, juice would often squirt from the area of penetration, flying up and hitting him squarely in the eye, the acidity burning him agonizingly. He hated oranges, and his present situation of trudging through the middle of a vast orange grove somewhere in southern California was not pleasing to him in the slightest.

"Sirius, do you have any idea where you're going?" Remus called ahead to his friend, whom he was following only grudgingly. The other boy had been the one to get them in this mess, and Remus had serious doubts as to his ability to get them out of it.

"What?" Sirius called back. He paused momentarily to allow Remus to catch up with him and then asked again, "What did you say?"

"I was just asking you," Remus sighed in exasperation, "if you knew where in the name of Merlin we were going?"

"Oh," said Sirius. "No, not really." He smiled cheerfully then turned to continue wending his way through the forest of fruit-bearing trees.

Remus sighed once more and started forward to keep in step with him. The day had started off well enough, he reflected sullenly. It was a Friday, the last day of term before the Easter holidays. He'd had toast for breakfast, and juice – pumpkin, not orange. Classes had gone better than usual, with only a few minor Potter-Black pranks and only one frustrated outburst from Professor McGonagall. How, then, had it all gone so suddenly wrong?

_Sirius_, Remus answered himself silently. _Sirius and his, "Come on Moony, a night out to London is _exactly_ what we need – a break, a life!" Sirius and his, "A portkey is not that hard to make, honest!" Sirius and his, "Erm, does that sign say 'California?'"_

Yes, as always Sirius had come up with yet another brilliant plan to get them expelled and, as always, Remus had foolishly gone along with it. What were friends for? At this thought, he turned to glance at the boy beside him, scowling and rolling his eyes at Sirius' stupidity, as well as his own.

"Sirius?" he said, not quite able to keep the tone of complete irritation out of his voice.

"Yes?"

"We're lost."

"Well yes, I believe we established that dear Moony," Sirius smiled.

"You know what would be great? If we could become _unlost_."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Sirius inquired politely. "We tried the Knight Bus thing – which apparently must be different in the States because it obviously didn't work. We can't apparate because of the whole '_we're sixteen and haven't learned it yet_' problem. You refuse to allow me to make another portkey – "

"And end up in Antarctica? No thanks."

" – and unless you have an owl hidden up your sleeve, I don't see that working either."

"There has to be something.," Remus grasped desperately.

"Well, when you figure it out, I'm all ears. Until then, we walk."

"Walk_ where_?"

"Oh I don't know," Sirius shrugged casually, "I hear Disney Land is pretty fun…."

"Would you for once take things more _seriously_?" Remus exclaimed, becoming angrier than he intended. "We made an unauthorized portkey, wound up in a foreign country, surrounded by the most god-awful fruit in the world! No one knows we left, no one knows where we are, and if the professors ever do figure it out we'll have detention for a year!"

"Well, on the bright side, at least Prongs was too busy snogging Evans, and Pete was too busy doing … whatever he does … to come along. There'll be less suspicion – no one will notice that Hogwarts is two Marauders short. So we probably won't get into any trouble…."

Remus grinned cynically at this rationalization. "Yes, but that again brings us to the fact that we have no way home," he said.

"Oh relax already," said Sirius. "We'll find some nice wizarding family nearby and Floo home from there. Easy as that."

"Mmhmm," Remus grumbled, a little more than skeptical.

They walked along in silence for a while, Sirius humming contentedly to himself and Remus glaring at every tree they passed. At long last, Remus' sullen expression seemed to get the better of the other boy, who sighed roughly and said, "Come on Rem, just look at it as an opportunity."

"An _opportunity_?"

"Well, yeah. Getting lost is just discovering something new – something unknown. Had you ever been to California before?"

"No…."

"And had you ever seen an orange grove before?"

"Regretfully, _no_."

"See?" Sirius said happily. "You get to experience something you never experienced before! Think of all the stories you'll get to tell."

"Oh yeah," Remus began sarcastically, "I can just see it now. '_You should have been there James! There was an orange tree, and then there was another one, and another one_….' Everyone will be so jealous."

"You're looking at it too narrow-mindedly," Sirius insisted. "Think about the fact that we get to see another part of the world, that while we could be closed up in a dorm right now, we're actually out doing something. Just think how we've stumbled upon the opportunity to _get out_, to _live_ a little."

Remus had had enough. He shoved his friend toward the nearest tree – a gnarled looking one that, if possible, seemed to bear even more fruit than the rest – and pinned him against it, finally reaching his breaking point. "Sirius," he snapped sharply, "if I wanted to hear philosophical views on life I would read Aristotle. I-want-to-go-home."

Sirius merely gazed at him, an impassive sort of demeanor about him that told Remus he was distinctly unfazed by this violent outburst. "You learn a lot about people too, when you get lost," he said calmly. "Yourself, others…. I've discovered that you become irritable when you have no clue where you are. And I can also see that, if I annoy you enough, you'll actually do something."

The expression on Sirius' face was inscrutable. He appeared to be expecting something – a response of some sort. Remus was caught somewhere between infuriated, confused, and strangely impressed. The two boys stared at each other, one waiting and one deliberating.

And then Remus, pushing aside the moment's hesitation that had managed to twist itself around his mind, crushed his lips onto the taller boy's before him. Pressing Sirius harder against the tree's convoluted trunk, he breathed roughly into his friends mouth, which opened obligingly. Sirius slipped his tongue into Remus' mouth, who felt himself shiver slightly as he tried to inhale anything but the sickly scent of citrus.

Remus pulled back, eyes closed, and slowly blinked himself back to where he was and what he was doing.

"And what was that Moony?" came Sirius' voice. He was still pinned against the tree, now wearing the obnoxious smirk that he was famous for.

The werewolf lowered his arms slowly, his breath coming in ragged bursts, and said with a composed grin, "I was … discovering something new."

Sirius smiled and pushed himself away from the tree to continue walking.

"So," began Remus, striding alongside the other boy, "erm … Disney Land, huh?"


End file.
